Blog 11

 

March 17 Facebook 2025

Big, noisy fliers were among the first insect arrivals buzzing about the Cherry Plum and garden shrubs and flowers, feeding voraciously - Queen Buff-tailed Bumble Bees, just emerged from hibernation. They are ravenous, having used up their food reserves to survive the winter. Right now, they are also feeding on garden shrubs e.g. last of the Mahonia, Viburnum, and here Daphne. 


They are feeding on ground cover flowers too – Bergenia (Elephant’s Ears) Photos 





Photo 2 shows insect segmented leg structure well against pink petals, 3 shows leg tip ‘claw’ details and distinctive tail colour.

Wildlife Gardening Tip:

Hunger satisfied these big Bumbles will then be looking for ground nesting sites, often in old mouse nests. In the absence of these, apparently mouse-type nesting material left in crevices can encourage and help them.

In there, they build the colony structure with their own wax and lay their eggs. In spring, the workers emerge (there can be several hundred of them), nurture eggs and their queen. They also forage, pollinating Lavender, Comfrey and, importantly for us, a wide range of crop plants. The successful colonies produce new queens who will forage, seek a sheltered site for their hibernation to make it through next winter and seek out early garden flowers once more.

It's mid-March – as well as the Bumbles, it’s time for Buzzards to show off and court as they rise in the thermals (5 at a time overhead this year!). Also, it is the time for festival profusion of pink Hellebores (Lenten Roses) 

This group started out from one plant... a gardener’s dream as they go on flowering for a month or more and get on with multiplying, harking back into their hidden heredity of potential variation. These have produced progeny in many shades of pink, plain, spotted and streaked 

 Their pale stamens offer pollen, and at the base of the petals are green nectaries 

Even flamboyant new cultivars

 retain the ability to produce viable pollen (and seed), although their nectaries are given over to making a visual impact for people rather than insects.

Wildlife Gardening Tips: Plant Lavender and Comfrey to help Buff-tailed Bumbles later, for their summer foraging.

And a bonus from planting Bergenia – its aptly named giant Elephant’s Ear leaves create sheltered wildlife passages – cover for ground foraging birds and small rodents.

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